It's not just the health of the person vaccinated that's at stake, but the health of the public too.

If people refuse to get vaccinated, even if they are old enough or able enough to do so, they are at risk of contracting diseases like Measles, Mumps and Poliomyelitis. Not only that, they are also harbouring the viruses that cause these diseases. This puts the life of others, especially those who are too young to receive vaccines or those whose religious beliefs forbid the use of vaccines, in danger. Such infections can cause epidemics that can kill hundreds of people. As such, vaccination should be mandatory. Parents who refuse to give their children vaccines (except in cases where their religion forbids them to do so) should also be charged with negligence and possibly manslaughter.

Yes, vaccinations should be mandatory for all children.

Vaccinations aren't just for you, but the community as well, it saves lives, and it prevents disease, which is better than having to treat the disease itself. If you get a vaccination, there is less chance of you passing it on to someone else. There are people that can't get vaccinations, either for religious, or medical reasons. If everyone in their community gets vaccinations, these people who can't get vaccinations are protected also. Vaccinations can simply save lives. It prepares the immune system for the viruses out there that can prove fatal to us. Yet vaccines don't make the body sick. Preventing disease is better than treating the disease itself. Treatment can cost thousands of dollars, while a simple vaccination can be covered by insurance. If vaccines can get everywhere in the world, whole diseases can be eradicated.

SOME vaccinations should be mandatory. For example the measles vaccine.

Certain vaccinations should be mandatory, but not all of them. Severe illnesses like measles cause a lot of damage and suffering and possibly death. If not for you or your own children, for another person. There are people that cannot receive vaccinations due to autoimmune disorders, weak immune systems due to other ailments like cancer, surgeries like organ replacement and treatment of ailments like chemo therapy. Catching something like the measles can be deadly for these people and it isn't fair to lock them in a bubble, no more fair than to quarantine the sick people. Vaccinations prevent either of those from happening.There are vaccinations that do not cause you to catch a form of the illness injected, unlike the flu vaccine. Unfortunately due to travel and immigration people are coming from countries that do not have certain illnesses like the measles under control and that makes it impossible to eradicate in a country. Better education about vaccinations on the other hand SHOULD be mandatory. A lot of people (not everyone) have selective hearing/learning and only hear/read or pay any attention to things that comply with their preconceptions about things. I think schools should have a mandatory education assembly for parents and guardians. People need to know what they may be risking by avoiding vaccination and complying with vaccinations. Doctors and healthcare providers need to be more upfront and adamant with the dangers and benefits, they are some of the select few who have gone through medical school/training and know for the most part the fullest extent of the human body, they should be sharing what knowledge there is on vaccinations, especially with parents and guardians. There is too much misinformation out there both for and against vaccinations that needs to be cleared. For example, the measles shot does not cause autism at all, the correlation between autism and measles vaccination was created by a doctor in an article he wrote in order to gain a small profit from 3 separate vaccinations rather than just one. That article was debunked and the journal that published it recalled the article. But people are either still unaware that it has been disproved or unclear on the entire matter. The government needs to be more forthcoming.

SOME vaccinations should be mandatory. For example the measles vaccine.

Certain vaccinations should be mandatory, but not all of them. Severe illnesses like measles cause a lot of damage and suffering and possibly death. If not for you or your own children, for another person. There are people that cannot receive vaccinations due to autoimmune disorders, weak immune systems due to other ailments like cancer, surgeries like organ replacement and treatment of ailments like chemo therapy. Catching something like the measles can be deadly for these people and it isn't fair to lock them in a bubble, no more fair than to quarantine the sick people. Vaccinations prevent either of those from happening.There are vaccinations that do not cause you to catch a form of the illness injected, unlike the flu vaccine. Unfortunately due to travel and immigration people are coming from countries that do not have certain illnesses like the measles under control and that makes it impossible to eradicate in a country. Better education about vaccinations on the other hand SHOULD be mandatory. A lot of people (not everyone) have selective hearing/learning and only hear/read or pay any attention to things that comply with their preconceptions about things. I think schools should have a mandatory education assembly for parents and guardians. People need to know what they may be risking by avoiding vaccination and complying with vaccinations. Doctors and healthcare providers need to be more upfront and adamant with the dangers and benefits, they are some of the select few who have gone through medical school/training and know for the most part the fullest extent of the human body, they should be sharing what knowledge there is on vaccinations, especially with parents and guardians. There is too much misinformation out there both for and against vaccinations that needs to be cleared. For example, the measles shot does not cause autism at all, the correlation between autism and measles vaccination was created by a doctor in an article he wrote in order to gain a small profit from 3 separate vaccinations rather than just one. That article was debunked and the journal that published it recalled the article. But people are either still unaware that it has been disproved or unclear on the entire matter. The government needs to be more forthcoming.

Yes vaccines should be mandatory

I think they should be mandatory because they not only could danger the persons heath but the people around them if they get sick from not getting the vaccine. It is not fair that there is a possibility your child could get sick because another child didn't get the vaccine.

Yes, because vaccination is a basic need.

It seems to me that the source of the disagreement here would have to lie in the question of whether or not one believes that immunization counts among the basic needs of a child. Surely, no one on the opposing side of this page believes that it is the parent's right to choose whether or not to feed or clothe one's children. Without food, without warmth, without shelter, your child is far more likely to suffer an untimely death. This same principle carries over to vaccines; without them, your child will become unnecessarily susceptible to horrific and entirely preventable infections. What's more, the "decision" to not vaccinate your children doesn't merely put that child's health in danger, but also that of every child who is unable to be immunized thanks to one of many possible reasons. This is a point that has been explained thoroughly by those joining me on the green side. Thus, based on the aforementioned points: the social hazard non-vaccination poses, and its vitality to a child's health and safety, vaccines can and should be mandated among children. At the very least, those children whose parents decided to not have them vaccinated unnecessarily can and should be isolated from others to protect the health and safety of the community, but I would prefer the former option.

Yes they should be mandatory

Yes, I think that vaccines should be mandatory for all children. At a young age, children are more likely to get sick from being around other children, and I think that they should be protected. The best way to protect children is to make sure that they are vaccinated and safe from diseases.

Yes, vaccinations should be mandatory for all children.

There is no proven study that MMR vaccination is linked to any serious disease. Parents with small kids must talk to their doctors and ask for more information if they are scared that MMR vaccination is not safe. However, if all children is immunized then there are less chances to get infectious disease.

Vaccines are boost

Disease prevention is key to public health. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccines contain the same antigens or parts of antigens that cause diseases, but the antigens in vaccines are either killed or greatly weakened. Vaccine antigens are not strong enough to cause disease but they are strong enough to make the immune system produce antibodies against them. Memory cells prevent re-infection when they encounter that disease again in the future. Through vaccination, children develop immunity without suffering from the actual diseases that vaccines prevent.

Unless it is medically unsafe, such as known reactions, allergies and those who are immunosuppressed

So, so many of the reasons behind why people are against vaccinations are based on bad science, the rest is just making up excuses for not liking to be told what to do. It's like as if someone were to tell them they were not allowed to wear blue on Tuesdays, or some such nonsense, they'd get just as defensive and riled up. But this is about the good of the many outweighing the good of the few, even if there was a documented risk of having a serious reaction (oh wait, there is! Same with EVERYTHING), the chance of one child getting sick is worth how many thousands of children not getting sick? Besides, there already is evidence that with any medical procedure there is risk of a bad reaction, we know that, we are told about them when we go in, is autism any worst than the chance of dying from anaphylactic shock? Or any of the other very serious, but very unlikely reactions that can occur? We take the chance with these already, I see no difference if one more thing is possible.

We are in a democratic society that unfortunately too many people believe in the hype that the government is feeding us. I haven't met a Doctor that will tell you getting the vaccine will not make your child sick or that if they get the vaccine they will not catch the virus its intended to protect against . That being said stand up for your rights to not be forced into something by a government that has been slowly taking our freedoms away from us.

Vaccinations are killing us out

Vaccinations are injections into your blood stream of the disease they are trying to protect you from so your body knows how to fight it. For the most part, it just gives the vaccinated the deadly disease. So, beware... I dislike vaccinations. They are bad. I get the flu every time I get the flu vaccination.

No, they should not.

No, vaccines should not be mandatory, it should be a parents right and choice to have this done. You don't really know what’s in vaccines, you're all going off what the government says, oh and how many times has the government lied to people, or oh suddenly we have found that this was in a product. Sorry but how many of you want to be forced into something you don't want to do.... All the children i know who have had been vaccinated get sick, a lot more than the kids who haven't been. There have been proven cases of links between vaccines and autism but of course you don't hear about them do you. The government doesn't care about your kid’s health, They care about how much money they make from vaccines. "In 2011, the US Federal government awarded 6 pharmaceutical corporations over 5.7 Billion to manufacture children’s vaccines alone", that's just the us... "Pharmaceutical companies care about profits and shareholders, not your children." What about the kids that coincidentally died after having a vaccine, how many do we not hear about. Oh and all the, non related illness from vaccines that pharmaceutical companies rake in on medicine to "fix" never mind it was them that caused it in the first place. So no at the end of the day irrelevant of people's opinion's on the issue, everyone has a right as a human being, to raise their kids how they want so vaccines should not under any circumstance be made mandatory.

Not mandatory for children at least.

Children are the group with weaker immune system. Weaker for the diseases, and also for the possible vaccine adverse effects. As long as there is a possibility of horrible adverse effect exist, it should not be mandatory, no one else could burden the responsibility other than parents. Parents deserve a choice for their children.

Unless a vaccine is proved to be 100% safe (not 99%), every individual being and/or parents should have CHOICES to succumb to statistics or not

No one is perfect and that includes scientist and doctors and statisticians. Unless it is proved that a particular drug or vaccine or treatment is 100% guaranteed to be safe, it should be purely based on persuasive advertisement and not by force again the will of an individual or parent. Very simple. End of debate.

No - freedom taken away

The freedom of choice is taken away from us, and our responsibility to protect the kids ourselves. What of the children who cannot take vaccinations because of some medical conditions, or people restricted by religious faiths - it is endless! The most simplest way is to just make it optional so that you don't need to make all them exceptions.

No, they should not.

No, vaccines should not be mandatory, it should be a parents right and choice to have this done. You don't really know what’s in vaccines, you're all going off what the government says, oh and how many times has the government lied to people, or oh suddenly we have found that this was in a product. Sorry but how many of you want to be forced into something you don't want to do.... All the children i know who have had been vaccinated get sick, a lot more than the kids who haven't been. There have been proven cases of links between vaccines and autism but of course you don't hear about them do you. The government doesn't care about your kid’s health, They care about how much money they make from vaccines. "In 2011, the US Federal government awarded 6 pharmaceutical corporations over 5.7 Billion to manufacture children’s vaccines alone", that's just the us... "Pharmaceutical companies care about profits and shareholders, not your children." What about the kids that coincidentally died after having a vaccine, how many do we not hear about. Oh and all the, non related illness from vaccines that pharmaceutical companies rake in on medicine to "fix" never mind it was them that caused it in the first place. So no at the end of the day irrelevant of people's opinion's on the issue, everyone has a right as a human being, to raise their kids how they want so vaccines should not under any circumstance be made mandatory.

Parents should be able to make this decision themselves

Everyone has a different opinion on vaccines and whether they should be mandatory or not. I strongly believe that no one can make that decision for you, especially not because different factors might be involved, such as religious aspects on vaccinations. I am extremely allergic to vaccinations, and getting one will probably result in death, so no thank you. Vaccinations shouldn't be mandatory, it should be your own decision.

One does not fit all.

Public policy regarding vaccines is fundamentally flawed. It is permeated by conflicts of interest. It is based on poor scientific methodology (including studies that are too small, too short, and too limited in populations represented), which is, moreover, insulated from independent criticism. The evidence is far too poor to warrant overriding the independent judgments of patients, parents, and attending physicians, even if this were ethically or legally acceptable. Indeed, evidence is accumulating that serious adverse reactions are being ignored. Although this article has focused on hepatitis B vaccine, similar questions should be raised about others as well.

No, not for everyone.

First off, people have different genes from one another. As a person interested in Immunology, I know that the performance of the Immune System is affected by your genetics. Sometimes, you fight some diseases better than others, depending on what types of MHC your cells contain. In some cases, you have people who have sensitive Immune Systems and will still experience symptoms of the illness. With this information that backs up my case, I conclude that vaccinations should not be forced upon every citizen, depending on their condition of their Immune System.